Mustafa Ali
On June 25, 2016, after Brazilian wrestler Zumbi was not able to participate in the Cruiserweight Classic due to visa issues, WWE announced that Mustafa Ali would replace him. On July 20, Ali was eliminated from the tournament by Lince Dorado in the first round. Ali appeared on the October 26 episode of NXT, where he and Dorado entered the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, but were eliminated by Kota Ibushi and TJ Perkins in the first round. On the December 13 episode of 205 Live, Ali made his cruiserweight division debut, wrestling Lince Dorado to a double countout. On January 23, 2017, Ali made his Raw debut, teaming with TJ Perkins and Jack Gallagher, defeating Drew Gulak, Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari. Ali began feuding with Drew Gulak, when Gulak began his "no fly zone" campaign on 205 Live. The feud culminated in a two-out-of-three falls match on July 18, which Ali won. In February 2018, Ali began participating in the Cruiserweight Championship tournament; he defeated Gentleman Jack Gallagher in the first round, Buddy Murphy in the quarterfinals, and Drew Gulak in the semi-finals to advance to the finals on the WrestleMania 34 kickoff on April 8, where he lost to Cedric Alexander. In June, Ali started a rivalry with Hideo Itami, who interfered in his him against Buddy Murphy. This resulted in a triple threat match between them on the June 19 episode of 205 Live, which Itami won after pinning Ali. On the July 3 episode of 205 Live, Ali defeated Murphy in a No Disqualification match. On the August 7 episode of 205 Live, Ali lost a match to Itami and collapsed afterwards, rendering him out of action for a short time. Ali returned after a month on the September 25 episode of 205 Live, where he wrestled Itami to a double countout before defeating him in a Falls Count Anywhere match on the October 23 episode of 205 Live to end the feud. The following week, Ali defeated Tony Nese to become the number one contender for the Cruiserweight Championship, but was defeated by champion Buddy Murphy at Survivor Series. During his time in 205 Live, Ali gained the attention of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, who decided to put him on the SmackDown brand. Ali made his first appearance on the December 11, 2018 episode of SmackDown Live, confronting WWE Champion Daniel Bryan. Later that night, Ali faced Bryan, but was defeated. The following week on SmackDown Live, Ali was confirmed as a full-time SmackDown roster member and teamed with AJ Styles to defeat Daniel Bryan and Andrade "Cien" Almas in a tag team match after Ali pinned Bryan. The following week, Ali defeated Almas. At the 2019 Royal Rumble, Ali competed in the eponymous match, lasting 30 minutes and eliminating Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe before being eliminated by Nia Jax. Ali was scheduled to compete in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship at the Elimination Chamber event in February, which would have been his first world title match; however, he was pulled out due to a legit injury, and replaced by Kofi Kingston. Ali returned to competition at a WWE live event on March 2, and made his televised return at the Fastlane pay-per-view, as a last minute addition in a match between Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan. Ali lost after he was pinned by Bryan. On March 25, 2019, Mustafa Ali's ring name was shortened to Ali. On the April 30 episode of SmackDown, it was announced that Ali would participate in the 2019 Money in the Bank ladder match, which he failed to win, after a returning Brock Lesnar interfered. The following month, Ali would compete in the 51-man battle royal at Super Showdown, but would fail to win. On July 27 at WWE Smackville, he was defeated by Shinsuke Nakamura in a match for the Intercontinental Championship. In August, Ali competed in the 2019 King of the Ring tournament where he defeated Buddy Murphy in the first round but lost to Elias in the quarterfinals. On the September 17 episode of SmackDown Live, Ali would rekindle his feud with Shinsuke Nakamura after Nakamura attacked him before their scheduled match. At the Hell in a Cell event, Ali would lose a match to Randy Orton. On November 13, 2019, Ali's name was reverted back to Mustafa Ali.Category:SmackDown Superstars